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Girls Basketball: Khadija Cooley, Joliet West overrun Lemont
Updated: November 29, 2011 9:56PM
An opportunistic, well-balanced offense run aggressively by Joliet West point guard Khadija Cooley was too much for Lemont to handle for 32 minutes.
The 5-foot-4 Cooley scored a game-high 14 points Tuesday night while directing the visiting Tigers to a 53-40 girls basketball victory, their first after three losses.
“She’s our everything,’’ Joliet West coach Kevin Michaels said. “Our defense, our press break, our press. She’s awesome. A lot of people don’t know about her because we only had five wins last year.’’
“We’re all getting confident,’’ Cooley said. “Basically, our confidence grew from last year. We all know we can handle the ball.’’
Valencia Chandler (10 points), Treanna Perry (nine points) and Vicky Orasco (seven points, eight rebounds) also made key contributions.
“We finally got the monkey off our back,’’ said Michaels, recalling losses to Andrew, Rich Central and by two points to Oak Lawn. “Our problem has been our scoring.’’
It wasn’t against Lemont as eight players scored for West in the first half as the Tigers built a 24-14 lead.
Cooley’s steal and layup early in the second quarter put West ahead 16-6, its first double-digit advantage. Valencia Chandler’s basket off a Cooley steal made it 20-8 before another steal and layup by Cooley gave Joliet West a 22-8 cushion with two minutes left in the half.
“She likes to pick and choose when she wants to turn it up,’’ Michaels said. “She waits to see how the defense is going to play her. It’s usually in the second and fourth quarter when she really turns it on.’’
“We’re trying to build a lead as big as we can,’’ Cooley said. “We don’t want to let another team get back in like we almost let them do.’’
Guard Kim Jerantowski led Lemont (1-5) with 13 points and Courtney Toth had nine. The Indians rallied briefly after trailing 40-23 going into the final quarter.
“We just don’t move our feet well enough,’’ Lemont coach Bill Bozue said. “We can’t stay between anybody and the basket. We’re not putting ourselves in position to block out.’’
Joliet West doesn’t play again until Dec. 8, against Homewood-Flossmoor, and Cooley expects a lot more victories this season.
“This year should be much better,’’ Cooley said. “We’re starting off better than we did last year. It’s just our overall confidence and mind-set.’’
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